1394 hard disk sector format selection

ABSTRACT

A method, computer system and apparatus describe how a data transmission rate of incoming and outgoing data are correlated to the size of a data storage area of a medium by formatting the medium with the data storage area into a plurality of sectors according to the data transfer rate of the data. The medium is correlated to a data transmission rate of data by providing a controller to format the medium into a sector size according to a packet size associated with the data transfer rate of the data. The method includes providing a controller with a capability of determining a read/write transmission size, the read/write transmission size correlated to the data transmission rate and the sector size. The controller also has the capability of determining a read/write transmission size according to the formula: R trans =(R HD , R data ) max  . The method includes formatting a hard disk drive, wherein the correlating the size of a data storage area on the hard disk drive with a data transfer rate includes correlating sector sizes of the hard disk drive according to a size of data packets to be transferred to the hard disk drive. The method includes providing an adaptive disk cache, the disk cache adaptively organizing the data into the size of the data storage area. The adaptive disk cache arranges the data for the data storage area such that a plurality of pending data requests can be reordered to complete the pending data requests efficiently.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention

[0002] The present invention relates to hard disk drives and formattingof hard disk drives, and more particularly, to the formatting of harddisk drives to receive data according to the packet size of aninterface.

[0003] 2. Description of the Related Art

[0004] Personal computer systems have attained widespread use. Apersonal computer system, such as a DELL® personal computer system, canusually be defined as a desktop or portable microcomputer that includesa system unit having a system processor or central processing unit (CPU)with associated memory, a display panel, a keyboard, a hard disk storagedevice or other type of storage media such as a floppy disk drive or acompact disk read only memory (CD ROM) drive. These personal computersystems are information handling systems which are designed primarily togive independent computing power to a single user or group of users.

[0005] A computer system user or computer system manufacturer mustformat the hard disk storage device for the device to be operable.Generally, formatting a hard disk drive involves low-level formatting,partitioning, and high-level formatting. Low-level formatting involvesexecuting a program associated with the hard-disk controller card andsupplying the controller with information concerning the hard diskdrive. A hard disk drive may contain one or more disk platters with eachdisk platter formatted into tracks and sectors. The informationtransmitted to the controller includes the hard disk drive's number ofsectors, and number of data bytes per sector. Typically, the number oftracks on a disk platter can vary from drive to drive, and the size of asector is typically defined to hold 512 bytes of data.

[0006] A hard disk drive normally contains registers for receivingcommands from the computer processor, and data registers for storingdata to be retrieved by the processor. This interface between the harddisk drive and the processor follows the type of interface requirementsof a given standard so that the hard disk drive can be attached to othercomputer components that also follow that standard. For example, anAdvanced Technology Attachment (ATA) interface hard disk drive willfollow the bus interface requirements defined in the American NationalStandards Institute (ANSI) ATA standard so that the hard disk drive canbe attached to an Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) ATA bus.

[0007] When a specification is capable of transmitting a variety of datatransmission rates, it is desirable to have a hard disk drive with theability to take full advantage of the data transmission rates.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0008] Accordingly, it has been discovered that the data transmissionrate of incoming and outgoing data can be advantageously correlated tothe size of a data storage area of a medium by formatting the mediumwith the data storage area into a plurality of sectors according to thedata transfer rate of the data. More particularly, a medium can becorrelated to a data transmission rate of data by providing a controllerto format the medium into a sector size according to a packet sizeassociated with the data transfer rate of the data.

[0009] More specifically, an embodiment of the present invention relatesto a method of transmitting packet data to and from the medium accordingto the sector size. The method includes formatting the medium such thatthe sector size and the packet data size are substantially equivalent.Additionally, the method includes providing a controller with acapability of determining a read/write transmission size, the read/writetransmission size correlated to the data transmission rate and thesector size. The controller also has the capability of determining aread/write transmission size according to the formula:R_(trans)=(R_(HD), R_(data))_(max). This formula provides that thetransmission rate realizable by the hard disk drive is a maximumfunction wherein the transmission rate is the maximum of the rate of thehard disk drive or the data rate.

[0010] According to another embodiment of the present invention, amethod includes formatting a hard disk drive, wherein the correlatingthe size of a data storage area on the hard disk drive with a datatransfer rate includes correlating sector sizes of the hard disk driveaccording to a size of data packets to be transferred to the hard diskdrive. The method includes providing information regarding the datastorage area to a driver for the hard disk drive and providing at leastone command indicative of information about the hard disk drive. Suchinformation includes a size to which the data storage area is capable ofreceiving data. The method also includes providing a controller thatreceives and transmits the at least one command and installing anoperating system capable of operating the driver.

[0011] Another embodiment of the present invention relates to a methodof formatting a hard disk drive that includes providing an adaptive diskcache, the disk cache adaptively organizing the data into the size ofthe data storage area. The adaptive disk cache arranges the data for thedata storage area such that a plurality of pending data requests can bereordered to complete the pending data requests efficiently.

[0012] Another embodiment of the present invention relates to a computersystem that includes a processor, a memory coupled to the processor, abus coupled to both the memory and the processor, a medium having a datastorage area, the medium coupled to the bus, and a controller coupled tothe bus, the controller capable of correlating the size of the datastorage area on the medium with a data transfer rate. The computersystem provides that the controller is capable of correlating the sizeof the data storage area to the data transfer rate for the data.Accordingly, the computer system includes means for determining a datastorage capacity of the medium, the data storage capacity including asector size, and means for formatting the medium into a plurality ofsectors according to the data transfer rate of the data. The controlleris capable of correlating the size of the data storage area bydetermining a data storage capacity of the medium, the data storagecapacity including a sector size. The controller then formats the mediuminto a sector size according to a packet size associated with the datatransfer rate of the data. The computer system also includes an adaptivecache with the medium, the adaptive cache storing the data on the mediumdepending on a packet data transfer rate. Accordingly, the controllercorrelates the size of the data storage area and transmits packet datato and from the medium according to the sector size. In one embodiment,the controller transmits packet data at a data transmission rateaccording to: R_(trans)=(R_(HD), R_(data))_(max) .

[0013] Another embodiment of the present invention relates to anapparatus comprising a hard disk drive according to the IEEE 1394Specification with a read and write head within the hard disk drive; aplurality of hard disk platters within the hard disk drive; an indexmark placed on at least one of the plurality of hard disk platters; anda plurality of sector marks indicating a position of the read and writehead, index mark and the plurality of sector marks indicating a positionof the read and write head through a predetermined method at the startof each revolution. The predetermined method includes at least one of:rotational positioning sensing, triangular positioning and thePythagorean theorem.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0014] The present invention may be better understood, and its numerousobjects, features, and advantages made apparent to those skilled in theart by referencing the accompanying drawings.

[0015]FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of one embodiment of a computersystem according to the present invention.

[0016]FIG. 2 shows a top view of a hard disk platter in accordance withthe present invention.

[0017]FIG. 3 shows a flow diagram of a method of storing and retrievingdata on a storage medium in accordance with the present invention.

[0018]FIG. 4 shows a flow diagram of method for transmitting packet datato sectors of a hard disk drive according to the data rate of the packetdata.

[0019] The use of the same reference symbols in different drawingsindicates similar or identical items.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT(S)

[0020] There are a multitude of factors that affect the speed of a harddisk, both physical and nonphysical factors, including the rotationspeed of the disk, the number of sectors per track, the physical seekand switch time of the disk, the rotational latency and access time, thecache allocated on the hard disk, the transfer rate for data, theorganization of data on the disk, and the type of interface.

[0021] Types of interfaces for hard disks include SCSI, EIDE and 1394.Data is organized on a hard disk into cylinders, heads and sectors.Modem hard disks have sector sizes that can be changed and no longerhave anything to do with the physical geometry of the hard drive. Thehard disk generally calculates a logical block address for accessingdata on the hard disk.

[0022] In a SCSI-2 type hard disk drive, the length in number of bytesfor each logical block is the sector size used by the drive to format. Atypical hard disk contains sectors holding 512 bytes of data. The numberof sectors multiplied by the number of bytes held in each sectorproduces that amount of data the hard disk can hold.

[0023] Referring now to FIG. 1, a computer system 150 is shownconsistent with an embodiment of the present invention that includes aprocessor 100, and a memory 110 coupled to the processor 100 via localbus 120. Processor 100 includes microprocessor 160, preferably amicroprocessor such as an Intel Pentiums microprocessor, and may includecoprocessor 115.

[0024] Local bus 120 includes conventional data, address and controllines conforming to, for example, the peripheral connect interface (PCI)architecture. Main system memory 110 may include dynamic random accessmemory (DRAM) modules coupled to local bus 120 by a memory controller130. Main memory 110 stores application programs and data for executionby processor 100.

[0025] Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) software 200 is stored innonvolatile memory BIOS ROM 210. BIOS 200 is a microcode softwareinterface between an operating system or application programs and thehardware of computer system 150. The operating system and applicationprograms access BIOS 200 rather than directly manipulating I/O ports andcontrol words of the specific hardware. BIOS 200 is accessed through aninterface of software interrupts and contains a plurality of entrypoints corresponding to the different interrupts. In operation, BIOS 200is loaded from BIOS ROM 210 to system memory 125 and is executed fromsystem memory 125.

[0026] A bus interface controller or expansion bus controller 135couples local bus 120 to an expansion bus 140, thereby coupling both thememory 110 and processor 100 to expansion bus 140. Expansion bus 140 iscoupled to I/O controller 175 which is coupled to and controls theoperation of output media and devices, including hard drive 180, floppydrive 185, keyboard 190 and mouse 195. Additionally, I/O controller 175operates to control data transfer on the expansion bus 140. According toone embodiment of the present invention, the I/O controller 175 operatesto correlate the size of a data storage area on a medium with a datatransfer rate. When the data storage area is hard disk drive 180, I/Ocontroller 175 determines the data storage capacity of the hard diskdrive, including the maximum sector size of the hard disk drive. Forexample, the I/O controller 175 performs formatting of the hard diskdrive, correlating the formatting to the data transfer rate of datareceived at the I/O controller 175. It will be appreciated that I/Ocontroller 175 may be capable of correlating the size of other types ofdata storage areas other than hard disk drives.

[0027] Referring now to FIG. 2, a hard disk platter 200 is shown. FIG. 2shows only the top view of the platter 200. Typically, both the top ofthe platter 200 and the bottom of the platter 200 are formatted toreceive data. Referring to the top platter, 200 shows a plurality ofsector numbers, 1-14 and an INDEX MARK. The hard disk platter 200revolves in the hard disk drive and a hard disk drive Read/Write Head(not shown) reads and writes data to and from the hard disk platter 200.The INDEX MARK, also known as “pulse” mark is used to indicate thestarting point for each revolution of the hard disk. The individualnumbers, shown in FIG. 2 as numbers 1 through 14, are sector numbers,also known as “sector pulses”. Using the INDEX MARK shown at the top ofthe hard disk platter 200, and the sector marks indicating a finerposition, the exact position of the hard disk drive read/write head canbe determined by using triangular positioning and the Pythagoreantheorem at the start of each revolution. Another method of determiningthe exact position of the hard disk drive is through rotationalpositioning sensing.

[0028] According to one embodiment of the present invention, theinformation concerning the exact position of the hard disk driveread/write head, allows reordering of the reading and writing of sectorsthat are queued up, either in the hard disk drive cache or from anoperating system queue. Accordingly, pending requests can beadvantageously reordered to complete all pending tasks efficiently.

[0029] The standard Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) model providesthat hard disk drives contain sectors sized to hold 512 bytes of data.However, certain hard disk drives, for example, the Barracuda 18LPFamily of hard disk drives by Seagate™ allow users having the necessaryequipment to modify the data block size and sector size by issuing aformat command to obtain different formatted capacities. For example,the Barracuda 18LP Family allows users to select sector sizes from 512to 4,096 bytes per sector in multiples of 2 bytes per sector.

[0030] The Barracuda family of hard disk drives supports the smallcomputer system interface (SCSI) as described in the ANSI interfacespecifications. This type of drive is a high performance hard disk drivecapable of data transmission rates of, for example, 3200 MBits/sec.Under SCSI specification, formatting a hard disk drive follows theparticular SCSI protocol for direct access devices. SCSI-2 protocol, forexample, provides for a MODE SENSE operation and a MODE PAGE wherein thesector size of the hard disk drive is determined. Typically, defaultvalues for sector size are hard coded in the firmware of the hard diskdrive and stored in flash erasable programmable read only memory (EPROM)nonvolatile memory on the drive. Certain values in nonvolatile memorycan be changed by a MODE SELECT command, wherein certain valuesconcerning the sector size can be changed by changing a bit mask storedin the nonvolatile memory. These values can generally be changed bydownloading new firmware into the flash EPROM.

[0031] The 1394 Specification, the so-called “Firewire™” Specification,is capable of data transmission rates of, for example 3200 Mbits/sec andsends information in the form of packets of data. Despite the fast datatransmission rates, computer users lose the advantage of transmittingdata at high speed due to several problems.

[0032] One problem is that packet sizes above 200 Mbit/sec must brokendown into 512 byte sectors when accessing a typical hard disk drivedesigned for the 1394 interface. Typical 1394 hard disk drives operatethrough a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus to IEEE 1394Adapter. Such hard disk drives include intelligent drive electronics(IDE) hard disk drives, which include AT attachment (ATA) hard diskdrives. Technological advances have greatly increased the transfer ratethat is possible across bus systems using an IDE or Enhanced IDEinterface.

[0033] Another problem associated with the 1394 specification iscommonly described as “command overhead”. Command overhead refers to theamount of overhead associated with each packet of data transmitted. Forexample, an asynchronous transfer interface will demand transactionlayer services between a bus manager, transaction layer services betweenan isochronous resource manager and the transaction layer, link layerservices between the node controller and the link layer, and, finally,physical layer services between the node controller and the physicallayer. Each service requirement adds command overhead to the datatransmission packet. As the amount of data transmitted increases, so toodoes the amount of command overhead. This is unlike the datatransmission for a typical IDE drive, wherein the amount of overhead notrelated to the amount of data transmitted. For example, a transfer ofone sector and a transfer of 256 sectors both require 6 bytes of commandoverhead, i.e., the same overhead regardless of the number of sectors.

[0034] To use IEEE 1394 data transmission rates, embodiments of thepresent invention relate to formatting a medium, and more particularly,formatting the data storage area of a medium according to the datatransfer rate of the data stored or retrieved from the medium. Moreparticularly, an embodiment of the present invention describesformatting a hard disk drive into sectors according to the data transferrate of the data. Referring now to FIG. 3, a method of formatting amedium is described. At step 310, the size of the data storage area iscorrelated to the data storage capacity of the medium. The data storagecapacity of a hard disk drive, for example, includes a sector size. Atstep 320, the method provides for determining the data transfer rate.Step 330 of the method describes formatting the medium into a pluralityof sectors according to the data transfer rate of the data. According toone embodiment of the invention, correlating the size of the datastorage area includes determining the maximum sector size of a hard diskdrive and providing a controller, wherein the controller performs theformatting of the hard disk drive according to a packet size associatedwith the data transfer rate of the data. Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 3in combination, one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate thatI/O controller 175 could perform the formatting function of step 330,or, in the alternative, a controller within hard drive 180 could performthe formatting function of step 330. In one embodiment, I/O controller175 or the controller within hard drive 180 has the capability ofdetermining a read/write transmission size, the read/write transmissionsize correlated to the data transmission rate and the sector size.According to another embodiment of the invention, instead of thecontroller performing the formatting of the hard disk drive, the harddisk drive itself performs the formatting of the hard disk drive usinginternal components. Finally, at step 240, the data is transmitted to orfrom the medium at the maximum data transmittal rate allowable. Thisrate may be determined according to the formula: R_(trans)=(R_(HD),R_(data))_(max).

[0035] According to one embodiment, step 330 includes providing anadaptive cache within either the hard drive itself or within I/Ocontroller 175. The adaptive cache stores the data on the hard drive 180according to the data transfer rate. For example, with reference to theIEEE 1394 specification, storing the data on the drive correlates to thepacket data transfer rate by transmitting packet data to and from thehard disk drive according to the sector size of the hard disk drive thatwas previously formatted according to the maximum transfer rate that thehard disk drive could handle. Ideally, the sector size and the packetdata size are substantially equivalent.

[0036] According to another embodiment of the present invention, step310 of method includes providing information regarding the data storagearea to a driver for the medium, the providing of information includingproviding at least one command indicative of information including asize to which the data storage area is capable of receiving data.According to this embodiment, a controller receives and transmits atleast one format command and installs an operating system capable ofoperating the driver. This embodiment further includes providing anadaptive disk cache, the disk cache adaptively organizing the data intoa predetermined size for the data storage area.

[0037] Referring now to FIG. 4, a more specific method of providinginformation regarding the medium and formatting the medium is described.In this embodiment, a method is described that applies techniquesdescribed in a SCSI protocol to IEEE 1394 hard disk drives andapplicable IEEE 1394 hard disk controllers. More particularly, thecommands described in the Serial Bus Protocol 2 (SBP-2) as specified byIEEE Standard 1394-1995 fail to provide a protocol enabling an IEEE 1394hard disk drive to take advantage of the high data transmission ratespossible under the IEEE 1394 Specification. The method herein describedapplies specific commands and modifications of the ANSI SCSI, SCSI-2 andSCSI-3 (Fast-20 and Fast-40) interface specifications to the protocol ofthe IEEE 1394 Specification. The combination of the SBP-2 and ANSI SCSIproduces a modified IEEE 1394 Specification by providing a modifiedasynchronous transport layer that takes advantage of the high datatransmission rates under IEEE 1394.

[0038] According to the IEEE 1394 Specification, asynchronoustransactions follow a protocol including a physical layer, a link layer,a transaction layer and an application layer. Incorporating thepacketizing commands of the SCSI and SBP-2 specification into the IEEE1394 Specification requires modifying the IEEE 1394 Specification. Morespecifically, an appropriate change to the IEEE 1394 Specificationgoverning asynchronous transactions includes modifying the transactionlayer to include extra transaction layer services covering packetizationof data requests, wherein the requests include commands to format thehard disk according to the data transmission rate. The transaction layerof the IEEE 1394 Specification includes software calls to low levelroutines that insulate a computer user or programmer from a programminginterface associated with the link layer. Additionally, the transactionlayer provides a verification procedure for packet delivery andinitiates acknowledgment of packets. Additionally, because asynchronouspackets must be constructed at the link layer, one embodiment of thepresent invention includes modifications to the IEEE 1394 link layer toaccount for the new transaction type and different packet contents.

[0039] Referring now to step 410, the hard disk drive or controlleridentified at step 400 receives an inquiry requesting that the hard diskdrive or controller provide information regarding the data storage areaand provide the information to a driver. A command from the SCSI-2specification, i.e., the MODE SENSE command described above,accomplishes this task by reading the MODE PAGE firmware of the harddisk drive. The MODE PAGE of the hard disk drive provides a separateconfiguration page stored in the EPROM. The SCSI-2 MODE SENSE commandprovides drive specifics to the driver and allows a user to first findout the maximum size to which the sectors may be set. The SCSI-2 MODESELECT command allows a user to change the values in the EPROM accordingto the sector size desired. Prior to sending either the MODE SENSE orthe MODE SELECT commands, the commands must be packetized according tothe IEEE 1394 Specification and downloaded as new firmware, e.g. bitmasks, into the flash EPROM.

[0040] Step 420 provides for packetizing the primary commands using theSerial Bus Protocol, such as SBP-2 protocol, and the IEEE 1394Specification. More specifically, step 420 combines the techniquesdescribed in SBP-2 with the capabilities of the link layer controllerresponsible for construction 1394 packets required to transmit data overthe 1394 serial bus. For example, the link layer controller constructspackets to be transferred to the physical layer controller via aninterface. However, prior to transfer, the data will include theSCSI-type commands described above. Accordingly, changes to the datanecessitates a new type of data structure. One type of data structurecapable for transfer under this modified system includes the operationrequest block (ORB) structure described in the SBP-2 protocol. Under theSBP-2 protocol there are several different formats for ORBs whose usesinclude acquiring or releasing target resources, managing task sets andtransport commands, such as command block requests. ORBs also provide,for the transfer commands, the address of a data buffer for the command.Applying the ORB structure to the present invention, the ORB is capableof providing a transport command to an IEEE 1394 hard disk drive withthe address of a data buffer or hard disk drive cache.

[0041] Step 440 describes the step of permanently setting the sectorsize of the hard disk drive to the maximum data transfer rate bychanging the parameters of the bit mask. More specifically, step 440requires changing the EPROM associated with the hard disk drive byinstalling new firmware. This requires changing the MODE SELECTparameters. The SCSI-2 interface, for example, provides for a ModeSelect Parameter List that includes a bit mask for providing the blocklength of a hard disk drive sector. Bytes 5, 6 and 7 are dedicated toproviding a block length. When each bit is enabled, the size of thesector is 4096 bytes/sector. Under one embodiment of the presentinvention, byte 4 of the Mode Select Parameter list is also enabled toallow for a larger sector size of 16384 bytes when the 1394 packet sizeis 16384 bytes.

[0042] The table below illustrates the different sector sizes to whichthe hard disk drive could be formatted according to the data transferrate: 1394 Bit Rate 1394 Packet Size and Sector Size 100 M bits/sec  512bytes 200 M bits/sec 1024 bytes 400 M bits/sec 2048 bytes 800 M bits/sec4096 bytes 1600 M bits/sec  8192 bytes 3200 M bits/sec  16384 bytes 

[0043] After setting the sector size of the hard disk drive to the datatransmission rate, step 440 provides for transmitting packet data to orfrom the hard disk drive.

[0044] According to one embodiment of the present invention, step 440includes providing an adaptive hard disk drive cache that is capable ofarranging the reading and or writing of the sectors that are queued suchthat the pending requests can be reordered to complete all pending tasksefficiently. This embodiment allows a hard disk drive formatted for alower number of bytes, for example 512 bytes, to rearrange queuedsectors so that a request at a higher data transmission rate, forexample, a rate of 200 M bits/sec will receive data in packet sizes of1024 bytes. Thus, the hard disk drive, although formatted at a lowersector size, appears to the controller as a hard disk drive formattedwith a higher sector size, i.e., a virtual hard disk sector size.

[0045] Although particular embodiments of the present invention havebeen shown and described, it will be obvious to those skilled in the artthat, based upon the teachings herein, changes and modifications may bemade without departing from the embodiments of this invention and itsbroader aspects. Therefore, the appended claims are to encompass withintheir scope all such changes and modifications as are within the truespirit and scope of this invention. Furthermore, it is to be understoodthat the invention is solely defined by the appended claims. It will beunderstood by those within the art that if a specific number of anintroduced claim element is intended, such an intent will be explicitlyrecited in the claim and, in the absence of such recitation, no suchlimitation is present. For a non-limiting example, as an aid tounderstanding, the following appended claims may contain usage of theintroductory phrases “at least one” and “one or more” to introduce claimelements. However, the use of such phrases should not be construed toimply that the introduction of a claim element by the indefinitearticles “a” or “an” limits any particular claim containing suchintroduced claim element to inventions containing only one such element,even when same claim includes the introductory phrases “one or more” or“at least one” and indefinite articles such as “a” or “an”; the sameholds true for the use of definite articles used to introduce claimelements.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of formatting a medium capable of datastorage of data, the method comprising: correlating a size of a datastorage area on the medium with a data transfer rate.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the correlating the size of the data storage areaincludes: determining a data storage capacity of the medium, the datastorage capacity including a sector size; and formatting the medium intoa plurality of sectors according to the data transfer rate of the data.3. The method of claim 1, wherein the correlating the size of the datastorage area includes: determining a data storage capacity of themedium, the data storage capacity including a sector size; and providinga controller to format the medium into a plurality of sectors, each ofthe plurality of sectors having a sector size according to a packet sizeassociated with the data transfer rate of the data.
 4. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the correlating the size of the data storage areaincludes: providing an adaptive cache, the adaptive cache storing thedata on the medium depending on a packet data transfer rate.
 5. Themethod of claim 4, wherein the adaptive cache arranges the reading andwriting of a plurality of sectors to provide a virtual hard disk sectorsize, the virtual hard disk sector size correlated to the packet datatransfer rate.
 6. The method of claim 3, wherein the correlating thesize of the data storage area includes: transmitting packet data to themedium according to the sector size; and transmitting packet data fromthe medium according to the sector size.
 7. The method of claim 3,wherein the sector size and the packet data size are substantiallyequivalent.
 8. The method of claim 3, further includes: providing thecontroller with a capability of determining a read/write transmissionsize, the read/write transmission size correlated to the datatransmission rate and the sector size.
 9. The method of claim 8 whereinproviding the controller with the capability of determining a read/writetransmission size further includes: providing for a data transmissionrate according to R_(trans)=(R_(HD), R_(data))_(max).
 10. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the medium is a hard disk drive.
 11. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the correlating the size of the data storage area onthe medium with the data transfer rate includes correlating a size of atleast one sector of a hard disk drive according to a size of at leastone data packet to be transferred to the hard disk drive.
 12. The methodof claim 1, further comprising: providing information regarding the datastorage area to a driver for the medium, the providing of informationincluding: providing at least one format command indicative ofinformation including a size to which the data storage area is capableof receiving data; providing a controller that receives and transmitsthe at least one format command; and installing an operating systemcapable of operating the driver.
 13. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: providing an adaptive disk cache, the disk cache adaptivelyorganizing the data into the size of the data storage area.
 14. Themethod of claim 13 wherein the disk cache arranges the data for the datastorage area such that a plurality of pending data requests can bereordered to complete the pending data requests.
 15. The method of claim14 wherein the data storage area includes read and write sectors of ahard disk drive.
 16. The method of claim 13 wherein the data is receivedas packets defined under a protocol, the protocol selected from a groupincluding an IEEE 1394 Serial Bus Standard.
 17. A computer systemcomprising: a processor; a memory coupled to the processor; a buscoupled to both the memory and the processor; a medium having a datastorage area, the medium coupled to the bus; and a controller coupled tothe bus, the controller capable of correlating a size of the datastorage area on the medium with a data transfer rate.
 18. The computersystem of claim 17, wherein the controller capable of correlating thesize of the data storage area includes: means for determining a datastorage capacity of the medium, the data storage capacity including asector size; and means for formatting the medium into a plurality ofsectors according to the data transfer rate of the data.
 19. Thecomputer system of claim 17, wherein the controller capable ofcorrelating the size of the data storage area determines a data storagecapacity of the medium, the data storage capacity including a sectorsize, and wherein the controller capable of correlating the size of thedata storage area formats the medium into a plurality of sectors, eachof the plurality of sectors having a sector size according to a packetsize associated with the data transfer rate of the data.
 20. Thecomputer system of claim 17, wherein the medium provides an adaptivecache, the adaptive cache storing the data on the medium depending on apacket data transfer rate.
 21. The computer system of claim 20, whereinthe adaptive cache arranges the reading and writing of a plurality ofsectors to provide a virtual hard disk sector size.
 22. The computersystem of claim 20, wherein the adaptive cache arranges the data for thedata storage area such that a plurality of pending data requests can bereordered to complete the pending data requests.
 23. The computer systemof claim 17, wherein: the controller correlating the size of the datastorage area transmits packet data to and from the medium according tothe sector size.
 24. The computer system of claim 23 wherein: thecontroller transmits packet data at a data transmission rate accordingto: R_(trans)=(R_(HD), R_(data))_(max).
 25. The computer system of claim17, wherein the medium is a hard disk drive.
 26. The computer system ofclaim 17, wherein the controller is in a hard disk drive.
 27. Anapparatus comprising: a hard disk drive according to the IEEE 1394Specification; a read and write head within the hard disk drive; aplurality of hard disk platters within the hard disk drive; an indexmark placed on at least one of the plurality of hard disk platters; aplurality of sector marks indicating a position of the read and writehead, index mark and the plurality of sector marks indicating a positionof the read and write head through a predetermined method at the startof each revolution.
 28. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein thepredetermined method includes at least one of: rotational positioningsensing, triangular positioning and the Pythagorean theorem.
 29. Theapparatus of claim 27, wherein the hard disk drive is formatted tocorrelate a size of a data storage area on the hard disk drive with adata transfer rate.